Garrett's final act: leaving Parliament

Disgraced MP David Garrett is ready to quit Parliament for the good of the Act Party.

Garrett said last night it was "very much more likely" he would stand down from Parliament before the next election. "I am in a very dark place right now," he said.

Garrett's former party boss Rodney Hide also offered to tender his resignation if it meant the party's survival.

He told TV3's The Nation: "If I came to the conclusion that it was in the best interests of the Act Party I would step aside."

Both men are on the defensive after an horrific week where Garrett's two brushes with the law were revealed.

Their willingness to put the party's interests ahead of their own came as a Howick woman, who met Garrett on an internet dating site, revealed he tried to woo her with a McDonald's dinner and a private viewing of the film Casablanca.

The married father-of-two met the woman, who declined to be named, through nzdating.com shortly after returning from Tonga in 2003.

He later bombarded her with text messages and emails through the dating site. "The guy has got no respect for females," she said.

The Herald on Sunday has previously revealed that Garrett was reprimanded for making lewd remarks to a female Parliamentary staffer and for abusing a TV show crew member after drinking heavily.

Garrett admitted being a member of nzdating but said he could not remember the date. "I deleted my profile many years ago," he said. "I have no memory of this."

Garrett's political career was derailed this week by revelations he stole a dead baby's identity to obtain a fake passport in 1984.

Bestselling author Frederick Forsyth, whose novel The Day of the Jackal inspired the former Act hardliner, said he deserved to be booted out for putting the dead infant's family through such an ordeal.

Speaking from his home in Hertfordshire, England, Forsyth told the Herald on Sunday: "I would imagine that it could have a terrible effect on their family. I would have thought that by now things had got a lot tighter."

Forsyth said that hypocritical politicians were "two a penny".

"Did you say the party were called Act? I would imagine this should be the final act of his career."